Description

★ PRIVACY: With hike messenger say goodbye to stalkers! From your milk-man to your aunts to that creepy guy in college; you don't want them to be seeing your profile picture, last-seen and status update, do you? Switch to hike and take charge of your privacy!

★ HIDDEN MODE: an awesome new hike privacy feature which allows you to hide the chats that you want to keep private from the world and access them only with a password! Your private conversations are now protected & secure from anyone who takes your phone.

★ SEND ANYTHING & EVERYTHING: Why email when you can send all kinds of non media files and documents like PDF, ZIP, Doc, PPT, APK and much more!

★ HIKE OFFLINE: Unable to message friends because they're not online? Don't worry! Hike does the hardwork to figure out if your friends are offline and then sends them your messages as an SMS, at no cost to you. When they reply, you get the message in hike!

★ BIGGER ATTACHMENTS: Now you can share large files and videos of 100 MB each. Now that’s what we call big!

★ CHAT THEMES: Everyone has backgrounds. We have 2-way themes! When you change the chat theme, it changes for your friends too! Let's add more character to messaging, shall we?

★ FREE HIKE2SMS TO INDIA: We've also built in FREE hike to non-hike SMS. So if your friends aren't onhike you can still message them. And better yet, for free! Free SMS can only be sent to India.

★ SHARING IS EASY: You can share photos, videos, location, contacts, walkie-talkie messages and much more on hike! Create group chats or chat one-on-one!

★ FAST, SIMPLE, PERSONAL, FREE: hike is super fast. With sent, delivered, read and typing notifications, it feels like you're having a chat with someone in person. The app uses your 2G, 3G or Wi-Fi (when available) to message with friends and family.

★ 128-bit SSL ENCRYPTION: Messages on hike messenger are now encrypted over Wi-Fi

★ MOVE TO SD CARD: The app can now be stored on the SD Card!

*** For any PIN Issues: Please contact support@hike.in for any PIN related queries. We'll get back to you within an hour! ***

We’d love to hear from you about hike. If you have any feedback, questions concerns, please email us at:support@hike.in

Privacy-first messenger app, very popular in India

THE VERDICT

hike messenger is a super popular communication app in India, designed specifically with the Indian market in mind. It's privacy-first, so you can only be seen and contacted by the people that you allow to be on your list. Hide private chats behind a password so that no one can snoop, even if they have your phone. Tons of stickers and emoji coupled with an excellent, intuitive design make hike the messenger of choice in India.

THE PROS

Send media and documents easily through hike, including PDF, ZIP, Doc, PPT, and even APK. The devs are super attentive to comments and user issues, which we always love to see in any app.

THE CONS

It's not hugely useful outside of India.

Original review from Aug 27, 2014:

Welcome to hike messenger, a messaging app that puts privacy first. It was designed in India to cater to the needs of the Indian market, but it's accessible from anywhere. Create a personal profile in hike, but only allow it to be seen by people on your list - not your aunts, not the creepster down the street, no one! You can also choose to hide specific chats behind a password to keep out anyone nosy enough to poke around your device when you're not looking.

There are also stickers and emoji galore to personalize your messages. Plus, you can send media and non-media files and documents, including PDF, ZIP, Doc, PPT, and even APK. There's an offline mode that allows you to contact your friends even when they don't have wifi access - hike detects that for you and sends them an SMS instead, at zero cost to you. Any reply they send will be in hike.

hike is really well-designed with a ton of thoughtful, useful features that perfectly fit the needs of Indian users. If you're not located in India, you probably won't find many of your friends on it, though.